From Dusk Till Dawn
by MaryandMerlin
Summary: Rowena has spent the last 60 years pining for her lost love. Will tonight be the night? RR/SS One-shot.


****Author's Note: So this is the first time that I have ever written a romantic for the founders. I hope you enjoy it. I hope I didn't butcher it. It's a week of firsts!****

 ** **Prompts****

 **Camp Potter**

History Appreciation - Write about Salazar Slytherin

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**

Transfiguration - Write an AU where a person has left the wizarding world and one day returns again out of the blue

 **FRIENDS challenge**

Season 1 - TOW it all began - Write about a new chapter in someone's life.

 **Disney Character challenge**

Faline - Write about a pairing of your choosing.

 **Percy Jackson Character challenge**

Minos - Write about a ghost.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything you recognise!

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From Dusk Till Dawn

When the small, silhouetted figure of a man rose over the crest of the distant hill Rowena had to squeeze her eyes shut. She had always know that staring mournfully at the sunset day after day couldn't be good for her eyesight, but she hadn't expected to start hallucinating. Though, that could always be her old age catching up to her.

By the time Rowena opened her tired eyes again, the figure had vanished leaving her staring once more at the dying rays of the sun. Her throat grew dry as the tears burned her eyes and Rowena silently cursed her feeble heart for still holding out hope after all this time.

She stayed, as she always did, sat on the fallen log until the last smudge of sky had faded from pale yellow into the indigo of dusk. With a sigh born from years of pain, Rowena rose from her perch and turned back towards her secluded home. Stooping slightly, she shuffled up to the cheerful orange door and let herself in.

Rowena spent the next few minutes going through her nightly routine. She fixed herself a small plate of supper, set the kettle to boil over the fire and settled into the big chair that flanked the fireplace. She tried, unsuccessfully, not to stare at the empty space in the chair opposite her, imagining who should have been beside her.

Not a day went by when Rowena didn't regret what a hot-headed young woman she had been. So arrogant and intelligent, but for all she understood about the way the world worked, she had no idea how the heart and the mind worked. It was her arrogance that had driven him away all those years ago and her own stubborn pride that had stopped her following him. Now she had no idea where he might be and no way of finding him. She didn't even know if he was still alive. She was alone in this world.

The sharp whistle of the kettle broke Rowena from her maudlin thoughts and brought her back to the present. Her old bones groaned as she lifted herself from the chair, fixed the cup of tea and sat back down. So simple a task only seemed to get harder everyday.

She didn't realise she had drifted off until a sharp knock at the door jolted her awake. Her dreams had been a whirlwind of confusion, flashes of her life had jumbled with her dreams and wishes. She rose swiftly and easily, almost floating over to the door. She wiggled the ancient bolt free and the weathered door swung inward.

Rowena stopped breathing.

"Salazar." She didn't speak it, simply mouthing the name when no words would come. Her eyes grew wide and a lump blocked her throat.

He didn't seem to have aged a day. His hair was still thick and dark, his skin seemed paler, almost greyish in colour but his eyes remained the same as always. Dark and mysterious, yet filled with a twinkle of humor that softened his severe countenance. A small smile warmed his face as he looked at her.

"Rowena." It was a voice that she had dreamt of for the past 60 year and have never thought to hear again. "At long last, my love."

Her mouth gaped open like a fish as she struggled to find the words to say to him. "I'm sorry." It was simply the truth, she was more sorry than he could imagine. "I'm sorry for what I said all those years ago. I'm sorry I never followed you. I'm sorry I let us down." It felt like the words were ripped from her very soul, and as they came free so did the tears.

"We were young and stupid and arrogant," he replied still standing in the doorway. "We contributed equally to our own misery, I only wish it had ended differently. I wish I could have come back to you, oh Rowena how much time we should have had."

"Why didn't you? I haven't moved in 60 years. Why didn't you come back?"

This time his smile didn't reach his eyes and it was tinged with a heartbreaking sadness that left Rowena breathless. "Look at me, love. Really look at me."

So Rowena did. She looked at him, hard taking in his dark hair and his dark eyes. The greyish pallor of his skin. He really didn't look like he had aged at all in the last 60 years. Understanding dawned the moment she realised that she wasn't just looking at him, she was also looking through him to the little garden gate that guarded her property and he really hadn't aged in the last 60 years.

"Oh, that's why."

He nodded. "Two days later. I got so blind drunk wallowing in my own misery that when I fell over and hit my head I was out cold and, unfortunately, the snow that night killed me. The great Salazar Slytherin met his untimely end in a snowdrift, who would have thought?"

"But, why am I only seeing you now?"

"Turn around."

As futile as it seemed to look around her own home, Rowena did as he asked and turned. New understanding dawned as her eyes fell on the withered woman sleeping in the chair. No, not sleeping. Dead. "Oh, I- I'm-"

"Yes, you died a little while ago. You're my unfinished buisness, Ro, and I think I'm probably yours. We needed to see each other again, just one last time. I needed to tell you that I love you, that I have always loved you and that I always will. That I'm sorry for wasting our lives."

It was difficult to process everything. That she had died. That the ghost of her long lost love had come for her at the end. She couldn't seem to hold it all straight in her head, but even through the confusion her feelings remained, as they always had. "I have loved you for the last 60 years Salazar, and I will continue to love you for as long as I can. Alive or dead."

In that instant, she felt it. A sharp tug somewhere behind her naval, not unlike the feeling of disapparition or travelling by port-key. It was insistent and continuous and seemed to want her to leave her home and go… well she didn't know where.

Wide eyed she looked at Salazar and from the look of mild shock on his face she knew he could feel it too.

"I think that means it's time," he murmured softly looking over his shoulder out into the countryside. He turned back and held out a hand. "Come away with me, Ro. We should have gone together last time and I'm not about to make that mistake again. Let's start this forever, together."

Rowena looked at his hand for a long moment, resisting the tugging sensation. "I'm scared, Sal," she whispered looking up at him.

"Me too," he admitted, "but we have to go, and I'd rather have you by my side than do it alone, wouldn't you?"

She nodded, reaching for his hand and clasping it tightly in her own. It was odd that there was no sensation in the touch. Rowena and Salazar looked hard at each other, realising this really could be the last time they were together, but with a sharp squeeze they turned out the door and began walking.

As the indigo of night gave way for the first pale rays of dawn, Rowena and Salazar crested the distant hill and faded from sight.

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 **Much Love, MaryandMerlin x**


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